The Brew Have you ever been sitting around with nothing to do? I know most people have such a busy life but I personally feel that's the way they want it. I like taking time off from work, vacationing, cruising, professional functions, church and your basic clubbing. Yep, I'm lazy. I was born lazy and had a relapse. So I think you can understand why one day with nothing to do I decided to take in a little television. My mind is always so active that TV acts as a dulling agent. A few hours of TV even with the sound off and I'm ready to go again.
Anyway here I was with some down time on my hands watching TV. This day I just happened to have the TV on a show about beer and the history of beer. I found the show to be interesting and putting the sound on I began to learn about the making of beer. As the show neared the end, I began to think, I can do that. I can make beer. Of course, the show had talked about wort, grains, yeasts and hops as part of the beer making process. Turning off the TV I headed into the kitchen. Now if I'm going to make beer what did they say I needed.
Rummaging in the refrigerator and the kitchen cabinets I came up with some ingredients that I thought might work. The TV show said grain. Ok what kind of grain did I have. Looking around I saw the cereal boxes. We just happened to have a box of Grape Nuts cereal. Now Grape Nuts has barley in it and a lot of sugar. Now I know from making wine, sugar ferments into alcohol. So with the Grape Nuts I got two items I would need. The show had also mentioned yeast to cause the sugar in the barley to ferment and turn to alcohol. Going to my base issue concept, I realized that the end product I wanted was a liquid with alcohol. Thats basically what beer is. Of course, great beers have a little more aroma and bouquet. Now I was not looking for something fancy here. None of that special malts for me.
Now to the process of making beer:
1. Take some water put it in the largest pot you can find. The bigger the pot the bigger the brew. How much water? Well I had a 5 gallon pot, and I had a box (large) of Grape Nuts. Looking at the weight ratio of water to cereal, I figured that the pot about three-quarters full would work and besides if the stuff started boiling maybe I would not have a spill over and have to clean the kitchen. I filled the pot to three-quarters put the whole box of cereal (I later hear about why did I use the whole box, "We were going to have that tomorrow for breakfast.") Turning the heat to high on the stove I sat back and waited for the water to boil. I let the water and cereal boil until about one quarter of the water was gone. I figured that would concentrate the sugar in what I later learned the brew masters call wort.
2. Remembering the TV show said to add hops at sometime during the boil, I started looking around for some hops. Sure every time we go to the store I get a hand full of hops. What are hops used for anyway. They just make the beer bitter to varying degrees depending on the types of hops, how much of the hops are used, and how long the hops sat in that fun brown mixture. No hops. What do they do besides add bitterness that helps cut the sweetness of the sugar in the mixture. Hops also acts as preservative. Well, I have 2 pound container of bay leaves that I used in the restaurant to make my BBQ sauce. Why not. So I threw a handful of the bay leaves into the mixture and let it boil for about 20 maybe it was 30 minutes. The cooking process had taken about 3 hours, I figured that was long enough. I add enough cool water to bring the pot back up to three-quarters full, turned off the fire and let the mixture sit. After about 3 hours, the mixture was cool enough that it was tepid, baby bottle warm.
3. On the the TV show they had added their special brewing yeast to what they called the wort and I called a brown mess with liquid. Now I alway have my special bakers yeast for baking so why not use the bakers yeast. I drained off the liquid from my brew into the larges pressure cooker I had. I threw in about one-quarter cup yeast maybe it was one-eight, anyway I put yeast into the liquid and stirred it in. I put the lid on the pressure cooker and the rocker, that little thing that helps regulate the pressure. I set the cooker on the back part of the counter and let it do its thing. Now I am frugal. I don't like waste. Must be the Scottish (Scotch I like) in me. Fishing out the bay leaves, I took the cooked cereal added some flour, salt, little butter, made it into loaves and bake them off into bread. We like to eat the bread hot out of the oven so the brew loafs where long gone before we could get to my wicked brew. If the brew tasted as good as the bread we had a winner. The bay leaves made the bread taste like sour dough with about the same texture.
4. The day before I was ready to put the brew in sparkling wine bottles I had available, I washed the bottles let them air dry and put lock down caps on them. Also, I made some simple syrup (water and sugar brought to a boil and cooled).
5. I let the brew mixture sit in the pressure cooker for about 48 hour. There was a lot of hissing going on but no foam or spill over. Taking the rocker cap off the pressure cooker, with a big hiss the pressure was released. I opened the pressure cooker. The liquid looked OK. It smelled OK. I guess I got brew. Tasting the brew, it had what is called a slight "spritz" tingle on the tongue and gums.
6. Transferring the brew into the sparkling wine bottle, I knew carbon dioxide would be produced once I closed the bottles, therefore I needed bottles that could handle pressure. Adding the brew to each bottle, I got about 3 and half bottles, I added about 4 tablespoon of my simple syrup to the brew, locked down the bottles with the sparkling wine bottle caps.
7. I let the brew in the bottles sit undisturbed for 14 days, it seemed like long enough. Taking the bottle that was half full, slowly allowing the pressure to release, I poured the brew into my favorite beer glass. The brew created some foam as air bubbles were released producing a fair head on the beer. The beer was a light amber in color. I smelled the bouquet of the beer; it had a low yeast smell.
8. Now the proof is in the tasting. I took a small sip. Light, slightly bitter, yeasty, good fizz, not bad. Not going to win any prizes, but good enough to drink and enjoy. The whole family got a taste of the brew and everyone thought it was good. Over a period of two weeks we tasted the brew and each time it seemed to get better.
Isn't it great what you can learn on TV?
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